I realized decades ago that the pre-adolescent baptism of my 10-year-old youth provided a sense of spiritual “security”, of possessing a ticket into heaven that would never be taken away. It was a sweet, tender surrender of a childish emotional affection for the idea of Jesus Christ as Savior. However, there was insufficient follow up, a failure to prepare me for the multitude of additional surrenders that would be necessary as I grew into other aspects of my life in the decades to come. I heard it said once that we give as much as we understand about ourselves to as much as we understand of God. At 10 there were a lot of things I didn’t know about God or about the me I would become over the next 28 years.. Entire areas of my life had not even come into being at age 10- things like sexuality, marriage, parenthood, financial responsibilities, career ambitions, As they did, I failed to recognize that each new area of my life had to be surrendered to Christ.. Eventually, that day came and the real work of learning to live as a a person submitted to the lordship of Jesus Christ began. Thank God! He knew the years that would lie between the two conversion experiences and how much more potent abundance for life in the here and now the second would bring.
As the Apostle Paul noted, you are “being saved”—present progressive—as long as you abide in the love of God and follow the teachings and example of Christ.. Some of us start and stop and start again several times before we learn to walk faithfully in “The Way.” .